The telecommunications industry has advanced over time to offer many services that enhance or expand traditional voice telephone communications. Networked voice mail systems are a prime example of such advancements. Typically, networked voice mail systems provide all of the features of local answering machine systems along with a number of additional useful features. For example, some networked voice mail systems may submit a voice or text notification to the subscriber (e.g., to a cell phone or pager) that advises of the receipt of voice messages by the voice mail system. As another example, some networked voice mail systems may offer the subscriber the capability to review, reply to, and/or forward voice messages from any location using a telephone. As yet another example, some networked voice mail systems offer the capability to receive and manage messages for multiple subscribers within a common organization, such as a corporate office.
Existing networked voice mail systems are typically only accessible to submit or retrieve messages using voice telephone communications (e.g., a telephone connected to a public telephone system). Furthermore, the option to submit a message to a networked voice mail system is typically available only after a call is made to the subscriber's telephone but not answered. However, there are situations when the use of voice telephone communications to submit a message to a subscriber's networked voice mail system is impractical and/or inconvenient. For example, a message sender may wish to submit a message to a networked voice mail system without disrupting or disturbing the subscriber by making a call to the subscriber's telephone. As another example, a message sender may wish to thoroughly review a message, for example to verify the content, grammar, etc., before submitting the message to a subscriber's networked voice mail system. The needs that arise in these and other similar situations are not sufficiently satisfied by existing systems and methods for networked voice mail.
Therefore, it should be appreciated that there is a need for systems and methods for networked voice mail which address the above-mentioned shortcomings, as well as others, of existing systems and methods.